The Milwaukee Bucks are fortunate to have not one, but two members of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team on their roster. These players, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, are considered two of the top 75 players in NBA history. Both were voted starters to the NBA All-Star Game this season, and both are sure to earn All-NBA honors this summer.
While Lillard’s addition to Milwaukee’s roster is more recent, Giannis has been a mainstay on the Bucks for over a decade. In that time, he has led Milwaukee from the cellar of the Eastern Conference to a NBA Championship. Along the way, he was won two league MVP Awards, a Defensive Player of the Year Award, and a Most Improve Player of the Year Award.
By all accounts, he is one of the few true superstars in the league.
Former Milwaukee Bucks Head Coach George Karl Lists Giannis Antetokounmpo On His List of Current NBA Superstars
Former Bucks head coach George Karl is not exactly fondly remembered by fans in Milwaukee. While he did lead the Big Three of Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, and Sam Cassell to the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals, he also was a key reason why that group of players ended up being dismantled.
Allen (another member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team) was traded to the Seattle Supersonics for George Mason and Gary Payton. Cassell was traded after the 2002-03 season for Joe Smith. Robinson was traded in 2002 for Toni Kukoc.
Karl himself was fired in July of 2003, but the Bucks would not win another NBA Playoffs series until 2019 when Giannis, the MVP that year, led them to victory in the first round against the Detroit Pistons.
On Saturday night, Karl, like many basketball fans, was watching the Dallas Mavericks play the Oklahoma City Thunder. Mavericks star Luka Doncic had a triple-double on the way to leading Dallas to a series victory.
Karl posted on X:
There are less than 10 superstars in the League today.
They are Joker, Luka, SGA, GA, Tatum, Joel and maybe still Steph.
LeBron was and ANT will be soon.
That’s it.
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) May 18, 2024
GA, of course, is Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Where Does Milwaukee Bucks Forward Giannis Antetokounmpo Rank Among Current NBA Superstars?
Of all the players that Karl listed, only two of them have won a NBA title: Giannis and Nicola Jokic. Those two players also have the most MVP Awards out of all the players on Karl’s list (Jokic just won his third this season; Joel Embiid has one). Both Giannis and Jokic were the NBA Finals MVP when their teams won the title.
While SGA and ANT are certainly up-and-coming superstars, and perhaps the future faces of the NBA, it is hard to put them above either Giannis or Jokic. Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid have not won NBA titles yet, though Doncic’s Mavericks just reached the Western Conference Finals. Embiid has never made it past the second round.
It can be argued, then, that the two most dominant superstars, or those most worthy of that title, are Giannis and Jokic. Since Jokic is still playing in the Playoffs and just won his third MVP, he might get the slight nod over the Greek Freak, for now.
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1 Comment
Desmond not George Mason:)